2023 Winner
GoldBest in Social Media
SilverBest in Consumer Goods
BronzeBest in Consumer Engagement
Unilever (Dove)
"Keep The Grey"
PHD
"Keep The Grey"
PHD
In August 2022, news broke that Lisa LaFlamme, long time news anchor and senior editor of the CTV National News, had been relieved of her duties after 35 years with the company.
Canadians everywhere were in shock. As a trailblazer for women in Canadian Journalism, and the face of the most-watched nightly news show, people started to ask why. Shock quickly turned to outrage when several reports claimed Lisa’s firing was partly due to her decision to let her hair go grey.
Canadian women took to social media to celebrate the former anchor for embracing her gray hair and owning her age. Many suggested sexism and ageism had played a role in LaFlamme’s dismissal. Some media experts pointed out that her predecessor, Lloyd Robertson, retired from the chief anchor role at 77 and was given an on-air send off.
As a brand, Dove has always taken a stand on the most critical issues in the areas of body image and beauty representation. When the news broke about Lisa, they wanted to call out the issue of ageism
in the workplace and publicly show their support to her in a forum that would spark
nationwide attention and dialogue.
The agency’s idea was to create a platform for these much-needed conversations about ageism to take place. They acted quickly by launching the #KeepTheGrey campaign, encouraging people to change their profile pictures to greyscale in solidarity. Their message was simple, that women with grey hair are being edged out of the workplace, and by standing with them, they can support women aging beautifully on their own terms.
They engaged an organization called Catalyst, a non-profit organization dedicated to building inclusive workplaces for women, with the commitment that whatever spend they put towards the campaign would be matched dollar for dollar.
The agency worked with Dove and their PR agency to spread the message across social media, within record time of the announcement being made. They had to be first and they had to be fast – The news of Lisa’s firing broke on August 18 th , and their social campaign went live on August 21 st . Paid media across Meta and Twitter was deployed quickly to garner some attention and build participation.
Dove was the first Canadian brand to bring attention to this story, and the bigger social issues at play.
Across social media, Dove changed their iconic gold logo to grey, and encouraged all social media users to change their profiles to greyscale in support of women being edged out of the workplace.
“#Keepthegrey”
It has been almost 20 years since Dove’s “Real Beauty” mission was launched.? That’s almost two decades of commitment to a single vision and purpose. And when a central idea such as this one informs everything the do, it helps validate the potential risks they take.
In this instance, it almost felt predictable that Dove would react the way they did.? There was heritage, relevance, and examples of similar brave actions take in the past.
There is no mistaking that when brands integrate news moments into their communications, or take a stand on hot button issues, that they are at a higher risk for blowback.? What studies tell us, in regard to creative effectiveness, is that going for a shortcut, copying and pasting your brand into the centre of people’s lives won’t work. It takes long-term commitment to understanding what the brand genuinely offers, what it does, and the role it can play in people’s lives.
Their social campaign reached 63% of their target audience, 89% of which said the campaign left them with a good impression of Dove. The campaign was successful in creating a platform for people to participate with over 100,000 post engagements, with 75% applauding the campaign and saying
they’d like to see more efforts like this from Dove.
News outlets across the country quickly picked up the movement and provided the scale needed to bring light to ageism in the workplace. With over 102 mentions and 900 million earned impressions, their message spread far and wide. International News outlets also took notice, and soon there were more than 3,000 mentions of #Keepthegrey worldwide.
They saw the campaign snowball into culture, as other well-known brands jump on the trend, with Wendy’s turning their logo grey and Sports Illustrated grey scaling their magazine’s front cover. Lisa LaFlamme was quickly validated when one month after her dismissal, she was back on air at a rival news outlet as a special correspondent with CityNews.
Canadians everywhere were in shock. As a trailblazer for women in Canadian Journalism, and the face of the most-watched nightly news show, people started to ask why. Shock quickly turned to outrage when several reports claimed Lisa’s firing was partly due to her decision to let her hair go grey.
Canadian women took to social media to celebrate the former anchor for embracing her gray hair and owning her age. Many suggested sexism and ageism had played a role in LaFlamme’s dismissal. Some media experts pointed out that her predecessor, Lloyd Robertson, retired from the chief anchor role at 77 and was given an on-air send off.
As a brand, Dove has always taken a stand on the most critical issues in the areas of body image and beauty representation. When the news broke about Lisa, they wanted to call out the issue of ageism
in the workplace and publicly show their support to her in a forum that would spark
nationwide attention and dialogue.
The agency’s idea was to create a platform for these much-needed conversations about ageism to take place. They acted quickly by launching the #KeepTheGrey campaign, encouraging people to change their profile pictures to greyscale in solidarity. Their message was simple, that women with grey hair are being edged out of the workplace, and by standing with them, they can support women aging beautifully on their own terms.
They engaged an organization called Catalyst, a non-profit organization dedicated to building inclusive workplaces for women, with the commitment that whatever spend they put towards the campaign would be matched dollar for dollar.
The agency worked with Dove and their PR agency to spread the message across social media, within record time of the announcement being made. They had to be first and they had to be fast – The news of Lisa’s firing broke on August 18 th , and their social campaign went live on August 21 st . Paid media across Meta and Twitter was deployed quickly to garner some attention and build participation.
Dove was the first Canadian brand to bring attention to this story, and the bigger social issues at play.
Across social media, Dove changed their iconic gold logo to grey, and encouraged all social media users to change their profiles to greyscale in support of women being edged out of the workplace.
“#Keepthegrey”
It has been almost 20 years since Dove’s “Real Beauty” mission was launched.? That’s almost two decades of commitment to a single vision and purpose. And when a central idea such as this one informs everything the do, it helps validate the potential risks they take.
In this instance, it almost felt predictable that Dove would react the way they did.? There was heritage, relevance, and examples of similar brave actions take in the past.
There is no mistaking that when brands integrate news moments into their communications, or take a stand on hot button issues, that they are at a higher risk for blowback.? What studies tell us, in regard to creative effectiveness, is that going for a shortcut, copying and pasting your brand into the centre of people’s lives won’t work. It takes long-term commitment to understanding what the brand genuinely offers, what it does, and the role it can play in people’s lives.
Their social campaign reached 63% of their target audience, 89% of which said the campaign left them with a good impression of Dove. The campaign was successful in creating a platform for people to participate with over 100,000 post engagements, with 75% applauding the campaign and saying
they’d like to see more efforts like this from Dove.
News outlets across the country quickly picked up the movement and provided the scale needed to bring light to ageism in the workplace. With over 102 mentions and 900 million earned impressions, their message spread far and wide. International News outlets also took notice, and soon there were more than 3,000 mentions of #Keepthegrey worldwide.
They saw the campaign snowball into culture, as other well-known brands jump on the trend, with Wendy’s turning their logo grey and Sports Illustrated grey scaling their magazine’s front cover. Lisa LaFlamme was quickly validated when one month after her dismissal, she was back on air at a rival news outlet as a special correspondent with CityNews.
Credits
PHDJanhavi Jadhav, Planning Manager, PHD Canada
Marissa Robinson, Planning Director, PHD Canada
Nishi Patel, Senior Manager Social, PHD Canada
Unilever
Laura Douglas, Senior Brand Manager and Growth Manager, Dove and Dove Men+Care
Evan Zhou, Assistant Brand Manager, Dove and Dove Men+Care
Cathleen Rafeiro, BPC Growth Strategy Manager
Rishabh Gandhi, BPC and Home Care Canada Lead
Edelman
Catherine Santos, Senior Account Director